Set a GOAL to plan the work and work the plan

What are Plan Goals?

What's more more difficult than developing the project plan?  Setting goals for planning the work and setting goals for executing the work defined by the plan.  Setting goals for planning and executing the work provides clarity and helps the project team members commit to executing work defined in the plan.

Setting a Goal to Plan the Work

How to define goals for creating and maintaining the plan

As a project initiates, or even prior to initiation, an agreement of how the plan will be created and maintained needs to be defined.  This is different than developing project goals.  It is also different than defining the project methodology.  Invest in setting, communicating, executing, and committing to goals for planning itself.

Some barriers for setting plan goals include:
-The people who contribute to the plan don't understand their role
-At the early stages of a project, there may not be a 'project' at all and therefore a lack of clarity that something needs to be planned
-A bridge between higher level strategy and the need for a plan may not be obvious

-Competing priorities prevent the right people from allocating time to plan
-Budgets do not account for the time and effort it takes to plan
-Urgency and eagerness to work quickly may cause proper planning to be skipped altogether

Most project methodologies provide guidelines for initiating and controlling the project.  Reinforce these methods with a Pledge to develop the plan.

Communicating Goals

How to build a team to define goals for a plan

Once plan goals are agreed, it is important to communicate the goals and ensure impacted people understand their roles.  This goes a long way to breaking through planning barriers.  As part of project initiation, you should have key stakeholders, contributors, and decision makers defined.  This is the team that needs to understand plan goals.  A face-to-face 'kick off' planning meeting is best.  Second best is a real-time video or web conference.  Plan goals should not be communicated in email exclusively.  Use email as a follow up reminder.

Setting a Goal to Work the Plan

How to define goals for executing work defined by the plan

Once goals are set for creating and maintaining the plan, set goals to define how to actually work the plan.  These goals should be agreed in advance of work commencing and may fall in line with the chosen project methodology.  Even if a methodology is available and agreed, goals for committing to exactly how the project will (or will not) follow the methodology is critical.

Committing Goals

How to agree to goals to work the plan

Finally, a commitment to how actual work against the plan will commence is needed.  This is the foundation of a project team's ability to determine progress against the plan and the Estimate to Complete (ETC).  This should fall in line with the project methodology, including a clear agreement on what part of the methodology is included / excluded.

Earning Trust through Power You Own

The Practical Project Manager earns trust through power:  positional power (you are the boss), expertise power (you do what you do very well), and/or relationship power (people trust you will get the job done).

Because project managers are often "on loan" or allocated to projects, they often must lead teams without real positional power.  Starting with a new team, a track record is not evident which makes it difficult to demonstrate expertise.  

Earning trust through the power of relationships is often the best and quickest way to establish the power you own.  Build your relationship power today:

• Do you validate and respect others' points of view?
• Do you meet, greet, and seek out people you are depending on and people depending on you?
• Are you setting the tone? There is no reason to be mean or angry even in the most difficult situations. Face difficulties with professionalism and dignity.
• Are you building relationships and friendships, being careful about "mixing business with pleasure"?
• Are you listening more, speaking less? Assume the speaker is right when listening; you will learn more and actually hear what they are saying
• Follow the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

Elements of a Communication Plan

The Practical Project Manager assures a solid communication plan is in place.  Check out the "Elements of a Communication Plan" details to assure you have a solid comm plan in place!

Innovative Process Change

Check out my new blog on Innovative Process Change.  This should provide valuable information for project managers to assure the "human side" of a project is not left behind!

Change Management Life Cycle

What is a Change Management Life Cycle?
Change Management is the practice of ensuring business discipline, communication, and training / education are initiated, executed, and delivered as part of a project.  Please see the introductory change management blog.


Once the change is defined through business discipline, a solid communication approach, and an agreement to provide thorough training and education, The Practical Project Manager executes a life cycle for change:  readiness, planning, execution, and long term sustainment.

Change Management Life Cycle

Steps for implementing change

Readiness:  Solicit feedback to determine root cause problems, ideation on potential solutions, and human factors.  Determine if the organization risk and opportunity tolerance can bear the proposed change.  

Plan:  Determine executive support, sponsors, and change agents.  Define clear roles and responsibilities.  A "Responsibility Assignment Matrix (aka RAM or RACI) can be used.  Agree the timeline and costs through a detailed work schedule.  A Gantt Chart can be used.


Execute Change:  Begin activities to implement the change.  This is done through a detailed communication plan which addresses who, what, when, where, why, how, and from whom the message is to be sent and received.  Write documentation to support a training and education track.  This can be in the form of presentations, gifts, posters, event material, online material, job aids, business process maps, etc.  Provide clear opportunities for impacted people to understand the change.  Conduct training sessions, classes, conference calls, webcasts, surveys, self-study courses, events, lunch and learn sessions, etc.

Long-Term Sustainment:  Implement tools and processes to measure effect of change over time through quantifiable metrics.  Ensure the metrics selected are easy to define, understand, collect, and are sustainable over time.  Determine the level of satisfaction qualitatively through interviews or surveys.  Be prepared for course correction if the change did not result in the desired result.

Earning Trust

Reliability + Integrity = Trust

A former client of mine remembers me as "the person who actually got something done."  As small a compliment as that was, I knew I had earned that person's trust.  There are two components to earning trust:  1) you actually have to get good quality work finished and 2)  you must do it with integrity.  

The Practical Project Manager gets the job done and leads the project with fairness, truthfulness, and respectfulness.


Start With The Basics
Paraphrasing Robert Fulghum, author of "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" , several basic points are key

• Share everything
• Play fair
• Clean up your own mess
• Don't take things that aren't yours
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody
• Balance your work/home/play life

Reliability 
If you are good at what you do and actually get work done, you will begin to earn trust.

• Set realistic goals for you and your team
• Plan your work, work your plan
• Do what you said you would do or course correct
• Communicate results (both good and bad)
• Be a better time manager

Integrity 
It's not enough to be a good project manager and get work done.  You must also do it with integrity.

• Validate and respect others' points of view
• Meet, greet, and seek out people you are depending on and people depending on you
• Your tone sets the tone for the project.  There is no reason to be mean or angry even in the most difficult situations.  Face difficulties with professionalism and dignity.
• Build relationships and friendships, but be careful with "mixing business with pleasure"
• Speak less, listen more:  assume the speaker is right when listening; you will learn more and actually hear what they are saying
• Follow the Golden Rule:  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you

People, People, People
Much of your work as a project manager is to make sure other people are doing their work!  Projects are people, people developing new products and services, and people executing business processes.  Communicating with people is the most important part of your job.

Start Your Day This Way
Do you spend 90% of your time communicating with people?
Are you creating value?
Are you fostering spirit, teamwork, and a zeal for delighting the stakeholders?

Refer to: #1 Earn the Trust of Others

Always refer to your company's methodology or the Project Management Institute for specific how-to.

Start by Imagining Project Success

"What's The Point?"

I worked on a project where "what's the point" was actually the (cynical) tag line!  Team members, sponsors, and stakeholders all ran around asking the question "What's The Point?"  


The Practical Project Manager knows the impact of external forces on a project's timeline and chance for successful completion.  This goes beyond project communication: we must delve into our surroundings and understand the environment we are working in.  


A successful project delivers against stated objectives and provides clear value to the enterprise.

External Forces
External forces are also moving and changing and are as important as internal project activity

• What else is your team working on?
• What is the resource allocation process to ensure your resources are adequately available?
• What does the overall portfolio look like and how does your project fit into the priority scheme?
• How are you able to communicate project status externally?
• Have you read the company's Annual Plan and Quarterly Reports?  
• What is happening with the company overall, with the industry it operates in and is impacted by, with the economy?
• What are the innovation and technology trends?  How is your project enabled or constrained by these trends?

Create an EXTERNAL FORCES CHECKLIST.  From this checklist, ask questions!  You will discover and be able to manage RISKS, DEPENDENCIES, and INTEGRATION POINTS that impact your project.


Project Duration
The longer the project duration, the more likely you will need to monitor activities outside your scope and make adjustments accordingly


A project with a short duration, let's say 3-6 months is less likely to be impacted by or impact external activities.  If a project is planned to last longer than 6 months, several complexities enter the picture:

• Does your project need to be broken down into smaller deliverables?  Is this really a program (a collection of projects)?
• What have you assumed to be constant or changing over the life of the project?  
• What if these assumptions are no longer valid over time?
• Look at the timeline of competing, dependent, and complementary projects.  How do they impact your timeline?
• Are there external mandates (such as legal requirements) that force your project to a fixed timeline?
• Will your project need to provide intermediate results given the changing landscape?
• Have your requirements changed over time due to new innovation, technology, or changing business needs?

Before building a complex GANTT chart, create a high level DEPENDENCY CHART which shows the timeline of external forces relative to your project.  These forces may dictate a specific timeline.


Finishing a project
A project is over when it is finished, canceled, you run out of time or money, or it has failed.  A project is rarely over when it is ‘finished’, so always work on the core, critical items first


Most will say a project is over when it is finished to the project sponsor's satisfaction.  The reality is a project is over when one of the following is achieved:


Finished - in the zeal to finish a project, we often strive to complete every requirement approved by the project sponsor.  However, a successful project is measured on how well it meets the stated objective.  When gathering requirements, make sure to rate each requirement for it importance and urgency in achieving the stated objective.  Create a measurable way to determine what "finished" looks like.


Canceled - projects are often canceled due to funding cutbacks, lack of resources, or lack of project sponsorship. If your project is canceled, make sure to leave clear project close-out documentation since canceled projects may be restarted at a later date.


Out of Time - if a timeline mandate is in place, for example a tax law changes at the end of the year, the project is finished at that moment.  Again, make sure the most important and urgent requirements are completed first.


Out of Money - most often, projects are finished when they are out of money.  Typically a project is awarded a certain budget based on a mandate, return on investment, or the financial tolerance for that business unit.  When the money runs out, the project is finished.  I cannot stress the importances of ensuring important and urgent requirements are completed first.


Failed - Sadly, many projects do not meet the stated objectives and ultimately fail.  Some studies suggest 60-75% of technology projects fail!  Even projects that meet stated objectives fail because the objectives do not create value to the enterprise.  I believe most projects fail because they fall short of expectations SET BY EXTERNAL FORCES, that is, the stated objectives of a project do no create clear value to the enterprise.


In Summary
The Practical Project Manager:

• monitors EXTERNAL FORCES to identify RISKS, DEPENDENCIES, and INTEGRATION POINTS
• builds a high level DEPENDENCY CHART which shows the timeline of external forces
• ensures important and urgent requirements are completed first
• delivers Project Success by delivering an improved product or service that has clear value to the enterprise.

Refer to: #5 Don’t Work in a Vacuum
Always refer to your company's methodology or the Project Management Institute for specific how-to.

Welcome!

Welcome to "The Practical Project Manager"
Everything you need to run a successful project!

If you are an aspiring project manager, especially in the technology area, this is a digest of information accumulated over the last 30 years or so...a concise, direct, and practical approach to project management.

Before getting started, you may want just a bit of background on what project management is all about. Take a peek at the wikipedia definitions before moving forward. Additionally, you may want to review the wealth of information provided by the Project Management Institute, specifically the "Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®)" guide.  Please note: PMBOK® is a registered trademark of the Project Management Institute and is referenced here in the spirit of education and open content.

Make sure to sign up as a "follower" and subscribe to this blog for on-going updates.

Introduction

What does The Practical Project Manager focus on every day? 

Tips that stand the test of time.  Focus on these five areas every day...now that's practical!

#1 Earn the Trust of Others
Relationships, spirit, people, communication, and creating value

#2 Balance the Three-Legged Stool
Time, cost, quality - the delicate balance

#3 Know the Difference
Risks, Issues, Actions

#4 Get the Right Stuff
Requirements & Decisions,
Equipment and staffing acquisition,
Procurement

#5 Don’t Work in a Vacuum
Integration, dependencies, scope and when to stop

#5 Don’t Work in a Vacuum

Integration, dependencies, scope and when to stop

• External forces are also moving and changing and are as important as internal project activity
• The longer the project duration, the more likely you will need to monitor activities outside your scope and make adjustments accordingly
• A project is over when it is finished, canceled, you run out of time or money, or it has failed
• A project is rarely over when it is ‘finished’. So always work on the core, critical items first

Managing Change

What is Change Management?
Change Management is the practice of ensuring business discipline, communication, and training / education are initiated, executed, and delivered as part of a project.


The Practical Project Manager ensures changes that will impact the organization are managed. These are the changes during the life of the project as well as the long-term organizational changes once the product is delivered.  Projects often fail due to lack of focus on change management. Depending on the project, change management may represent 30-50% of the overall project budget.


A point of clarification: this article about the change a project will bring to an organization. Not "change control" or "ITSM Change Management" , meaning controlling the technical changes to a computer system.

Business Discipline
Buy-in at all levels and phases

• Executive Sponsorship
• Steering Team
• Resource Managers
• Project Team Spirit: "we are doing the right thing"
• Engagement, awareness and sensitivity for stakeholders and people impacted by change

1. During project initiation, identify who will be responsible for change management and the groups of people responsible for business discipline.
2. During project execution, engage groups at appropriate intervals using appropriate methods depending on roles.
3. Upon delivery and at project closure, ensure the long-term plan is in place for on-going governance.

Communication
Project Status and Product Adoption

• Daily, weekly, and periodic project status
• Generating excitement
• Project team environment, physical space, tools
• Working face-to-face, working virtually
• Handling bad news
• "Going Live"
• Project closure
• Post-production support

Training and Education
New People, Process, Technology


Often projects focus on product/technology development, for example a new website. In order for the new product to be effective, processes need to be developed and people need to be trained.

• Project team on-boarding and training
• Business process management ("BPM")
• Training plan, logistics, materials, coordination, delivery
• Production operations (in-house, outsource, administration)
• Impacts on individuals, job functions, results objectives
• Measurements of expected vs. actual change, change readiness, long term adoption

See the Change Management Life Cycle Blog for more information on how to actually execute the change.